The present invention relates to operating a data processing device. In one embodiment, the invention provides for profile-based application hibernation.
Computer users often have different roles when using a computer, and often the same computer is used for both work and social tasks. For example, this results in a user getting in to work and having to launch several applications that they require to do their job and closing them when they go home at the end of the day. When they are at home, they have to start more non-work applications, or require application use of non-work files. Sometimes a user may wish to switch to their work role at home for a couple of hours in the evening but without the inconvenience of having to launch all of the applications that they require.
There are several known solutions that relate to this problem. Firstly, the concept of multiple desktops that could allow a user to run applications associated with work and social uses on different desktops is known. However, this has several drawbacks in that there are a limited number of alternative desktops, and so a user may want to represent more “roles” than is possible. Another drawback to this approach is that it does not take into account applications that may fit into multiple roles, forcing the user to move the application or switch desktops. Additionally, the applications running in another desktop may continue to use system resources even while a user is using a different desktop. Another approach that could be used to solve this problem is user switching. A user could create an account to represent each role that they want to represent and switch between them. However, this approach also suffers from the disadvantages listed above.